As Intel's 8th generation Core "Coffee Lake" processors inch closer to their 5th October launch, those with early access to the retail chips are putting them through their paces. One such test landed on Geekbench database. A top-end Core i7-8700K six-core chip running on an EVGA-made, Z370 chipset-based motherboard (model code: 121-KS-E375).

Running at its standard (out of the box) clock speeds, the Core i7-8700K scored 5,773 points in the single-threaded bench, which is higher than the 4,900-ish scores one can expect from the Ryzen 7 1800X. In the multi-threaded test, it scored 24,260 points, which is lower than the 28,000-ish points typical machines with Ryzen 7 1800X score, due to the two extra cores it packs compared to the i7-8700K.

Just 2 extra cores + HT on a mainstream platform + 4.7 Ghz clocks, yes, and OC to take it a bit further. Note that for the people anxiously waiting for the next gaming-killer CPU, this is what Ryzen shouldve looked like, and for me personally, this spec sheet screams INSTA BUY in terms of being an actual upgrade from an i5 3570k for gaming - and just about everyone else who's still rocking Sandy or Ivy.

'Move along, nothing to see here'... lol

At 5 Ghz this baby may score over 7K single... 120 min fps here we come... hell you could probably just OC 4 Core turbo to 4.7-4.8 and drop down to 4.5 or so for 6 core turbo, and it still kills everything in sight on mainstream, with a *mild OC*.

Really poor Kaby Lake owners in this thread have so much money they replace their CPU every year. Meanwhile my i5 2500 is eagerly awaiting a long overdue upgrade which will boost both single threaded and multithreaded performance. It's nice to have an actual brain and make informed decisions (read upgrades) instead of shelling out dough every year just because "OMG, it's a brand new CPU generation, I must upgrade ASAP!!!"

birdie said:Really poor Kaby Lake owners in this thread have so much money they replace their CPU every year. Meanwhile my i5 2500 is eagerly awaiting a long overdue upgrade which will boost both single threaded and multithreaded performance. It's nice to have an actual brain and make informed decisions (read upgrades) instead of shelling out dough every year just because "OMG, it's a brand new CPU generation, I must upgrade ASAP!!!"

Coffee Lake is the first worthy upgrade in many years.

That was a stupid comment, all because you have this cpu doesn't mean that other people want it or use it to its full affect. There is people out there that will need those 2 extra cores. Good for you that you dont upgrade every year and that your 2500 non K can still get the job done but I wouldnt want to render or do anything with editing with that processor.

I have an i7 4770K. Will the 8700K be a good upgrade? I game on my PC, mostly FPS shooters, so I'm not encoding or doing anything like that. With that said, I have a 1080Ti and would like to squeeze extra FPS out of it and feel the bottleneck right now is CPU as I also have a current SSD drive and windows 10.

skates said:I have an i7 4770K. Will the 8700K be a good upgrade? I game on my PC, mostly FPS shooters, so I'm not encoding or doing anything like that. With that said, I have a 1080Ti and would like to squeeze extra FPS out of it and feel the bottleneck right now is CPU as I also have a current SSD drive and windows 10.

birdie said:Really poor Kaby Lake owners in this thread have so much money they replace their CPU every year. Meanwhile my i5 2500 is eagerly awaiting a long overdue upgrade which will boost both single threaded and multithreaded performance. It's nice to have an actual brain and make informed decisions (read upgrades) instead of shelling out dough every year just because "OMG, it's a brand new CPU generation, I must upgrade ASAP!!!"

skates said:I have an i7 4770K. Will the 8700K be a good upgrade? I game on my PC, mostly FPS shooters, so I'm not encoding or doing anything like that. With that said, I have a 1080Ti and would like to squeeze extra FPS out of it and feel the bottleneck right now is CPU as I also have a current SSD drive and windows 10.

No, if you can get 4.6 on the 4770k and pair it with nice RAM, you're fine for shooters really. The gain you can still get out of 5 Ghz is minimal, 10% if you're REALLY lucky and the game engine doesn't get in the way. The extra threads, I strongly doubt they'll help and the IPC gain from Haswell onwards is minimal at best. Give it time, and that 1080ti will get capped with newer games anyway, so even if you upgrade the CPU now, your performance win is temporary. Also if you move up in monitor resolution, you'll have more CPU headroom.

If however it wont go past 4.3 comfortably, then yes, worth considering, but even then I'd wait one gen probably.

birdie said:Really poor Kaby Lake owners in this thread have so much money they replace their CPU every year. Meanwhile my i5 2500 is eagerly awaiting a long overdue upgrade which will boost both single threaded and multithreaded performance. It's nice to have an actual brain and make informed decisions (read upgrades) instead of shelling out dough every year just because "OMG, it's a brand new CPU generation, I must upgrade ASAP!!!"

Coffee Lake is the first worthy upgrade in many years.

Honestly I think the percentage that really does a yearly upgrade, especially from Skylake to Kaby, is so minimal I doubt its worth mentioning. Lots of people are really good at posing & you don't see the millions of people who just play their games and stfu :) If the percentage was high, PC markets wouldn't be in decline ever.

I feel that the current trend of gaming in hardware has a lot to do with my age range of people, we grew up with early, usable PCs that were sort of intuitive, we've seen it grow into what it is now and there is quite a lot of disposable income to toss out as well. The surge in high end parts is definitely accountable to my age range (I'm 31 atm) and from a youth as well that is capable enough to hop on and go for PC gaming as always, also a youth with more money to spend (babyboomer parents, in Europe at least) and the young parents of today also pass on the torch. Its even becoming pop culture-ish now with E sports.